> I would much prefer to use the mailing lists only. > IRCs have the tendency to continuously exclude those people who are working > in a different time zone and also those that are not always online.
Somebody wise once said: if it didn't happen on list, it didn't happen. (I think it was Ron Fielding) IRCers must make sure that there is no decision making on the IRC channel. Decision must happen on list. Some other projects (I heard) make some important chat protocols public, ooo-dev could past chats to issues or as attachments to votes. Anyway, I am not a huge fan of using IRC for the reasons Ingrid mentioned. But sometimes it really helps and if we make sure nobody is excluded by default, I guess it is fine
